‘Sanctity of Life’ Sunday is scheduled for January, 23rd 2011. It is an opportunity for the Church to raise awareness of this great ethical, social & (very much) spiritual issue. We encourage you to watch this 23-minute interview and get a copy of Sproul’s book, Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue.
‘Sanctity of Life’ Sunday – Jan 23rd
January 11th, 2011 by JasonFor We Shall See Him As He Is
January 2nd, 2011 by JasonDear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
In his sermon on this verse called “The Beatific Vision“, Charles H. Spurgeon described what it will mean to see Jesus ‘as he is’,
“Consider, first of all, that we shall not see him abased in his incarnation, but exalted in his glory. We are not to see the infant of a span long; we are not to admire the youthful boy; we are not to address the incipient man . . . we are not to behold him subject to pains, and weaknesses, and sorrows, and infirmities like ours. We are not to see the eye wearied by sleep; we are not to behold hands tired in labour; we are not to behold feet bleeding with arduous journeys, too long for their strength. We are not to see him with his soul distressed; we are not to behold him abased and sorrowful. Oh! the sight is better still.
We are to see him exalted. We shall see the head, but not with its thorny crown. . . . We shall see the hand, and the nail-prints too, but not the nail; it has been once drawn out, and forever. We shall see his side, and its pierced wound too, but the blood shall not issue from it. We shall see him not with a peasant’s garb around him, but with the empire of the universe upon his shoulders. We shall see him, not with a reed in his hand, but grasping a golden scepter. We shall see him, not as mocked and spit upon and insulted, not bone of our bone, in all our agonies, afflictions, and distresses; but we shall see him exalted; no longer Christ the man of sorrows, the acquaintance of grief, but Christ the Man-God, radiant with splendor, effulgent with light, clothed with rainbows, girded with clouds, wrapped in lightnings, crowned with stars, the sun beneath his feet. Oh! glorious vision!”
God Gave Himself to Save Us From Himself
October 27th, 2010 by JasonLast Sunday we considered the biblical concept of Jesus’ substitutionary death as a propitiatory sacrifice, a propitiation, that satisfied the holy wrath of God that stood against sinners.
John Stott explains it like this, “According to the Christian revelation, God’s own great love propitiated his own holy wrath through the gift of his own dear Son, who took our place, bore our sin, and died our death. Thus God himself gave himself to save us from himself.”
Now you might have stumbled over that last sentence. God himself gave himself to save us from himself? How can that be right? Why do we need to be saved from God? Aren’t we saved from our sins?
Yes, we are — but not first and foremost. Think about it. If God were not holy, then there is no reason why he could not (and would not) overlook at least some of your sins. We do it all the time. Your friends are far from perfect, but nonetheless you frequently show them mercy.
But the difference between you and God is that you’re not Him. You’re not holy as he is holy. And because he is holy, to overlook or downplay the seriousness of sin would be a violation of his perfect character. That means God’s own holiness constrains him to punish all sin and not overlook the slightest.
So the implication is this: Before God could forgive our sins (ie. the expiation of sins), he had to satisfy his own wrath and justice against our sins (ie. the propitiation of himself). Therefore, Jesus’ atonement was primarily directed towards God and permanently affected a change in God’s stance towards sinners, securing God’s immutable favor towards those who believe.
The fact is that believers will continue to sin even after our conversion. So in a sense, we need to be “saved” from our sins on a daily basis. But we have the assurance that we’re saved once-for-all — the moment we first believe in Jesus as our penal substitute. Because from that moment on, God only looks upon us with mercy and favor. His wrath and justice are completely satisfied towards us in Christ. That, my friends, is our hope and confidence even as we continue to fight our sinful flesh. That is the good news of the gospel!
Modern Day Observance of Yom Kippur
September 28th, 2010 by JasonHere is the full version of the video we showed on Sunday that documents a recent celebration of Yom Kippur by Samaritan worshippers. Just look at the joy in the faces of these worshippers, celebrating because they believe their sins are atoned for by the blood of these lambs they’re slaying. It is sad really. Let’s pray that they one day find true joy and atonement in the precious blood of the True Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29).
Our Suffering Substitute
September 16th, 2010 by JasonHere is a powerful, faith-strengthening excerpt from C.H. Spurgeon’s sermon on 1 Peter 3:18 called “Our Suffering Substitute”:
Trembling sinner, look to Jesus, and thou art saved.
Dost thou say, ‘My sins are many’? His atonement is wondrous.
Dost thou cry, ‘My heart is hard’? Jesus can soften it.
Dost thou exclaim, ‘Alas, I am so unworthy’? Jesus loves the unworthy.
Dost thou feel, ‘I am so vile’? It is the vile Jesus came to save.
Down with thee, sinner; down, down with thyself, and up with Christ, who hath suffered for thy sins upon Calvary’s cross.
Turn thine eye thither; see Jesus only. He suffers. He bleeds. He dies. He is buried. He rises again. He ascends on high.
Trust Him, and thou art safe. Give up all other trusts, and rely on Jesus alone, alone on Jesus, and thou shalt pass from death unto life.
This is the sure sign, the certain evidence of the Spirit’s indwelling, of the Father’s election, of the Son’s redemption, when the soul is brought simply and wholly to rest and trust in Jesus Christ, who ‘hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.’
Humility & Humble Correction
September 15th, 2010 by JasonThe Gospel Coalition council members James MacDonald and C.J. Mahaney address the multifaceted expressions of humility and how to humbly engage in the necessary practice of Christian correction. The latest video in TGC’s roundtable series.
What is Penal Substitution?
September 6th, 2010 by JasonIn light of our upcoming sermon series on the cross, it will be helpful to define penal substitution, the particular doctrine that is intimated by the name of our series, “In My Place Condemned He Stood”. Here is a good Trinitarian definition from the book Pierced For Our Transgressions: Recovering the Glory of Penal Substitution. It should be read slowly and meditatively — weighing the deep gospel truths in each sentence.
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“The doctrine of penal substitution states that God gave himself in the person of his Son to suffer instead of us the death, punishment and curse due to fallen humanity as the penalty for sin. This summary can be expanded to give some sense of how the doctrine connects with other important biblical themes.
God the Father gave his Son to save rebellious, God-hating people, knowing that he would be despised and rejected by those he had made, that he would be a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. He spared sinful people from condemnation, death and punishment, but he did not spare his own beloved Son, with whom he was well pleased.
God the Son gave himself, willingly undertaking the task appointed for him by his Father. He veiled his glory in a human body, experienced every temptation we face without succumbing to any, and lived a perfect human life. Yet he took our sin and guilt upon himself and died a cursed death, suffering in his human nature the infinite torment of the wrath and fury of his Father. After three days he was vindicated in his resurrection before being exalted to his heavenly throne. From there he rules his kingdom, awaiting the day of his glorious appearing when every eye shall see him, every knee bow before him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
God the Holy Spirit, having been sent by the Father and the Son, now works in our hearts through the proclamation of the gospel to convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment, to draw us to Christ in repentance and faith, and so to unite us to Christ that we may share in every blessing he has won for us.
God the Holy Trinity thus turned aside his own righteous wrath against sinful humanity; endured and exhausted the curse of the law that stood against us; cleansed us from our sin and clothed us in Christ’s righteousness; ransomed us from our slavery to sin, the world and the devil by paying our debt, canceling the devil’s power of accusation against us, and liberating us to live new lives empowered by the Spirit; triumphed over all evil powers by punishing evil in the person of the Son; and reconciled us with himself by removing the barrier of sin and enmity between us; in order that we may stand blameless and forgiven in his glorious presence, credited with the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, as adopted children of God, gazing upon his face for all eternity.
God vindicated his truthfulness by remaining faithful to his promise that sin will be punished; he manifested his justice by punishing sin and acquitting the righteous; he glorified his name by exalting his Son and placing all things under his feet; and he demonstrated his love by dying for sinners and reconciling to himself those who were once his enemies.”
Piper’s Concern in the Justification Debate
August 24th, 2010 by JasonIn this video, John Piper speaks into the justification debate raised by the New Perspective on Paul. He explains why a Christian’s zeal for doing mercy & justice must be rooted in a right view of justification by faith alone. In other words, we must not divorce our ‘kingdom work’ from the good news of how we came to be included in the kingdom.
The transcript of the video is found here.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil
August 6th, 2010 by JasonAnd the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
According to Genesis 2-3, the original sin was spurning God’s good and gracious provision and disobeying his one prohibition to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To understand the seriousness of this transgression, it helps to unpack the meaning of the Hebrew idiom “knowledge of good and evil”. In Daniel Fuller’s The Unity of the Bible, he writes:
“When the original readers of the Old Testament encountered the expression “to know good and evil,” they understood such knowledge to be what mature adults possess — a maturity in which they were independent and therefore responible for the decisions they made.
Understanding this term in Genesis 3:5 in this way coheres well with the way Genesis 2:4-3:24 has been expounded thus far. The command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would then mean that Adam and Eve were not to aspire to the maturity possessed only by God, whereby they might consider themselves to be independent of him and able to enjoy a fulfilled life by taking matters into their own hands and making their own decisions for their future welfare. . . . A contemporary scholar agrees with this interpretation. “[Here] man takes upon himself the responsibility of trying apart from God to determine whether something is good for himself or not.”"
In short, the original sin of man was self-autonomous rebellion against God. It was man’s determined attempt to throw off God’s fatherly guidance/provision and to seek a life of happiness and fulfillment apart from Him. Fundamental to all human sin is a desire to be our own masters, making our own decisions, directing our own future welfare.
And so we’re convinced that we know what is good for us – what would advance our happiness and increase our joy — and what is bad for us — what would hinder our happiness and diminish our joy. Life is filled with illustrations of how humans, living apart from God, are convinced they have the knowledge to determine what is good and evil.
“I know that acting out on this sexual desire will be good for me and make me happy.”
“I know what kind of marriage best serves the interest of children and society as a whole.”
“I know that ‘taking care’ of this unwanted pregnancy will be the best for my future.”
“I know that I my life will be more secure and comfortable if I can amass enough wealth.”
Sadly, we are still reaping the sinful effects of what our first parents sowed in the Garden. But the good news of the Gospel is that God sent His Son to reverse the effects of the Fall! Consider Fuller’s words:
“Such an interpretation of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil links up with Christ’s command to ‘change and become like little children’ in order to enter the kingdom of God (Mt. 18:3). It indicates that the essential way in which people are rebelling against God is that they are assuming that, like him, they can make the decisions necessary for enjoying a fulfilled and happy future. The folly of this rebellion is that people think they love themselves more, are wiser, and thus better able than the all-loving, omniscient, omnipotent God to provide for themselves the fulfillment they crave. Thus conversion, according to Jesus, reverses the act of the Fall and makes a declaration, not of independence from God, but of dependence upon him. Converts thus become little children, who gladly confess that only their heavenly Father knows the niche into which they should fit in order to enjoy permanent fulfillment.”
Friends, God loves you more than you love yourself. That means He loves and seeks your greatest good with more zeal and determination than you can ever muster. And He has revealed in the scriptures that your greatest good is to live in dependent, childlike (not childish) relationship with Himself. That is why He sent His Son Jesus to the cross to die for our sins, reconciling unholy sinners to the Holy God. And now the invitation to enter such a relationship is open to all who turn from their self-autonomous independence and place their trust and dependence on His Son Jesus.
He Has Fulfilled the Obedience That We Owe
July 27th, 2010 by JasonCharles Hodge:
“It is good to know — especially when facing the next world — that for every time we have failed to conform to God’s will in thought, word, and deed, by actively sinning or failing to conform to his revealed will, his Son has fulfilled the obedience that we owe. By never once giving in to the lust, pride, sloth, greed, selfishness, and malice that are so often allowed space in our overcrowded hearts, Jesus Christ becomes our Savior not only in his atoning death but throughout his life.”